


Big Fish in Small Ponds

by SleeplessInGeneral



Series: What About Your Camp Spirit? [5]
Category: Dead of Summer (TV)
Genre: M/M, OCs - Freeform, fluff (and lots of it), modern day AU, plot filler of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 01:54:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8037613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleeplessInGeneral/pseuds/SleeplessInGeneral
Summary: '"You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think you could ever be." –"Innuendo", Queen.If you ever feel down, remember that music's got your back, and so do I! See you next summer.-Andrea Dalton of cabin seven. xx'
That note gave Blair hope for many a year. And that note was what kept him going, no matter what life had in store for him.





	Big Fish in Small Ponds

**Author's Note:**

> I had a really hard time with this one. Mainly because the ending happens at camp. And I don't like writing that, mainly because I changed the timeline a lot so I could write those stories and it will still make sense. So, for the record, regarding this story, let's pretend the whole confusion fiasco between Drew and Blair regarding Drew's identity happened a while before the overnight, and the masquerade ball happened at the end of the year, according to plan. Because this story, as are all of those in the series, are modern-day AUs and should be seen as such.

"Mom, who's David Bowie?"

Blair tilted his head and looked at his mother, who was caught by surprise. She raised her head from the book she was reading to look at her son. "He's the guy who sings Space Oddity and collaborated with Queen on Under Pressure, mi amor. Why are you so interested all of the sudden?"

"Someone at camp told me I need to start listening to his music after we had a conversation about stuff. That's why." He didn't want to elaborate on that. "I'm in my room, okay?"

"Okay. Just throw the dirty clothes to the laundry and put the clean ones in your dresser before you do anything. And please do the same for your brother. You know I don't trust him to do it properly." He nodded shortly and ran off upstairs. And then Blair heard his mother scream "don't think you're off the hook, Renee! Put our clothes away right now!"

His sister screamed back, "but I already did it! And I showed you I did it!"

Blair tried his hardest to ignore the thing that was going on between his mother and sister. He showered, got dressed and went to the computer, to look up who David Bowie is. Sure, he knew the song Space Oddity. His abuelita called it "your abuelo's song" for some reason. And somehow Andrea failed to tell him that he collaborated with Queen, a fact that she definitely should have told him after their lengthy talk about Freddie and the decision to start that Queen vs. Bowie war. But while that was one thing, he wanted to know about the man himself. Organizing his and Alejo's clothes could wait.

_"Do you know who David Bowie is? No? It's a shame. He lives he wants to live, he does what he wants and he doesn't care what people think. I understand that you're different and don't really fit in. I know how you feel, I feel the same way. So maybe we should both learn something from him."_

Blair went deep with his research on the man. He had to admit, she was right. Bowie was batshit crazy back in the eighties. But he liked it. He liked what he saw, and it made him happy to know that there was such a person as Bowie.

He took his dad's headphones, connected them to the computer and put on a song that came up in the YouTube search.

_"I know when to get out and when to stay in, get things done… I catch a paperboy, but things don't really change, I'm standing in the wind, but I never wave bye-bye…"_

* * *

 

_'"You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think you could ever be." –"Innuendo", Queen._

_If you ever feel down, remember that music's got your back, and so do I! See you next summer.  
-Andrea Dalton of cabin seven. xx'_

First thing Blair did on the first day of school was to put Andrea's note in a safe place. He slept with it under his pillow for a while now (yes, he knew he was lame) but it was getting a bit inconvenient to take it out every morning just to read it again. And he wanted it near him but not constantly on him. He didn't know where to put it until Cricket arrived, and he could hear her from downstairs.

"Where's Blair, Valeria?"

"Taking his time. Can you please go rush him, Cricket? We both know you do a better job than I."

Seconds later, his best friend was at the door, holding out a pack of peanut butter cups. "In case of emergency," she said with a big smile, "break seal." She held it out to him. "What's going on, Blair? Aren't you excited?"

"I'm just looking for a good place to put this." He showed her the note and she read it.

"Why would you want to hang a note from camp? And from Andrea, of all people." She took the note and gave him his chocolate. "We're going to be late. Can we go now?"

"I need to hang this somewhere so that I can remember a very specific conversation I had with her and you're the last person I'll share this conversation with."

"Why? Was it about me?"

"No. It was about me. And her." He took the note back. Cricket was giving him an angry look. "I'm sorry, okay? I don't think this is a conversation I should be telling you about!"

"Why not? If it has something to do with you, why won't you tell me?"

"Because having a conversation with someone about being gay isn't something you can so easily share with people!"

The concerned look she was giving him made it clear that he made a mistake. "Blair, are you gay?"

"Yeah. Are you mad at me for not telling you sooner…?" And then she burst out laughing. "What's going on, Cricket?"

"Finally! Finally you admit that to yourself! It's such a happy moment, Blair, I swear to you." And then he was crushed by a hug. "Put it on your mirror," she mumbled into his shoulder. "It's a place you always look at, and it's always here."

"Alright then. Let me get to the mirror, please."

He put the note on the edge of the mirror, tore a bit of sticky tape from the roll he had on his desk and stuck it there. And then he went back to admire the new decoration. And then he turned around.

"Let's start this first day of school, Cricket."

* * *

 

"How was your day, mi amor?" Blair's mom asked the moment she heard his bag fall to the ground in a big thud. He went to the living room and let himself break down. "Blair? Is everything okay?"

He really did not want to answer to her. Soledad was asleep on the floor and he did not want to wake her up. But that was not only why he did not want to answer. And then his sister saved the moment.

"Mom, can I go skating with Annie and Rachel today?"

"Not now, Renee, I'm trying to talk to your brother –"

"But can I?"

"Yes, Renee," Valeria said in a defeated tone. "You can go with them. Can I talk to Blair now?"

"I need to wash my locker again," he muttered. His mother turned concerned eyes to him. "It's not like that –"

"No, Blair, you are not holding any information from me. Why do you need to wash your locker? Again? It's only the third week of school –"

"People don't really like it that I'm gay, okay mom? Can we not talk about this?"

And then, as if she just got a surge of energy, she put a hand on her hip and grabbed the phone. "Does Marta know the headmaster's phone number?"

"No. Mom, what are you doing?"

"I'm putting a stop to this. Don't worry, I'll take care of this."

So he went to his room and there, on the mirror, was the note.

_'"You can be anything you want to be, just turn yourself into anything you think you could ever be." –"Innuendo", Queen._

_If you ever feel down, remember that music's got your back, and so do I! See you next summer.  
-Andrea Dalton of cabin seven. xx'_

So he took a deep breath, took his earbuds and started playing David Bowie in full volume. It always made him feel better. And he had Andrea to thank for that.

* * *

 

Blair didn't know just how meaningful this note would end up being for him. The summer he was a counselor at Camp Stillwater, that note was hidden in his bag. He had it on him all the time to give him confidence, the same confidence and pride in himself that high school took from him. He couldn't tell anyone, especially not Cricket, that it was only that note that made such a big change for him.

"You still kept that note, huh."

The moment Blair's eyes adjusted to the light difference he could see his boyfriend, holding the folded note between two fingers. Blair really wanted to ask him what was he thinking for going through his bag, because he thought he kept the note hidden pretty well and it's not like changing clothes meant rummaging through your boyfriend's bag. He ran inside and tried to take it back.

"Drew, please –"

"Take it. It's yours. I wrote it for you, not for me to take back once we met again." He let Blair take the note with ease. "But you kept it."

"Yeah, I kept it." He sat down on Drew's bed, with Drew joining him after a few seconds. "It's going to sound very stupid, but I need that note. For me to not break down." He felt his boyfriend's hand on his shoulders. "High school was… awful. Really, really awful."

"Tell me about it." Drew laughed a bit.

"I know you had it bad too. I'm not trying to claim that your time was any better than mine. But really, it stripped me of any sense of confidence or pride I ever felt in myself. It's cleaning my locker every day because people write homophobic comments on it, it's ditching school because I just don't feel like handling those people today. Cricket had it bad too. We'd go through the same things together and we only had each other to confide in."

"Thought you had more friends than just Cricket."

"I do. But only Cricket, my mom and my abuela really knew what was going on with me, and that's not very much, especially since my abuela died when I was in the tenth grade. And Cricket had only me and my mom. Her parents didn't really get what she went through. So I needed that note to keep me grounded, and to keep Cricket grounded as well."

They just sat there in silence, Drew hugging Blair close, like he's about to disappear at any given moment. They were only snapped from their zen about a minute or two later.

"Blair?" Cricket called as she came into the cabin. "Deb needs us to –" She stopped midway. The two boys disconnected quickly. "I'm sorry, guys, if you need –"

"No, it's okay." Drew stood up and went to the door. "I only really came here to change. Jessie and I have something to do." With a last glance at Blair, he left the cabin. Cricket quickly ran to sit next to Blair on the bed.

"Deb needs us to do what?"

"To go and get marshmallows for the overnight. But that can wait another five minutes." She gave him a brilliant smile. "What did you two do in here?"

"Nothing. We just talked."

"Just talked, or is there something you're not telling me?"

"Trust me. This is just talking. Can we go get those marshmallows?"

She smiled at him and he returned his smile. "But you owe me all the details," she told him and lifted him from the bed.

They came back pretty late that night, so Blair dropped Cricket at her cabin and took the grocery bags full of marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. She hugged his neck.

"Just a couple more weeks until the Queen and Adam Lambert concert." Cricket smiled brightly.

"Wouldn't miss it," he said, returning he smile. He chose not to tell her Drew and Jessie were going to be there too, for the sake of not ruining her mood. "It's gonna be me and you forever, isn't it?"

"Pretty much. Hate to break it to you, but you're stuck with me."

"I'll be going to drop those off now. Good night, Cricket."

"Night, Blair."

And he still hasn't told her anything. And maybe it was better this way.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still not sure about this, so it will be updated if I have anything to write about Blair and Cricket's school experience. Maybe even from Cricket's perspective. Because I never write about Cricket and I want to start. (But first I need to finish working on Joel's first story...)
> 
> The Queen vs. Bowie war is based on a real debate my dad and I have been keeping aflame since my first ever exposure to Pink Floyd. I'm Team Queen, my dad is Team Pink Floyd. The debate has been dormant for a while but after being at a Q+AL concert, I think I'm going to restart it. And it somehow made its way to this story after a conversation with a friend, where I asked if people these days still listen to Queen (I don't know anyone who listens to them, which is sad, but my friend apparently does). And I'm pretty sure they were fans of that incredible band back in 1989 (I know my dad was), so I had to put it here. Just... Yeah, I just had to.


End file.
